Sports of The Times; A Combative Armstrong Is Committed To Battling On

By GEORGE VECSEY

Published: September 14, 2005

AT first, it sounded like a delicious prank -- Lance Armstrong riding again in France, just to annoy his critics. The champion who would not go away.

In reality, it is a terrible idea. The last thing Armstrong, the seven-time winner of the Tour de France, needs next year is to be racing downhill in the Alps or the Pyrenees.

Now that Armstrong has taken on institutional France as the source of the latest drug charges against him, who knows what plastic shopping bag or stray foot might be lurking amid the swarms on the mountainsides?

''There are other countries in Europe,'' Armstrong said yesterday, referring to the challenging national races of Italy or Spain.

He is nothing if not combative. During the 2004 Tour, Armstrong chased down Filippo Simeoni, an Italian cyclist who had testified against Armstrong's adviser, Dr. Michele Ferrari, who has since been implicated in unethical practices.

It was hardly normal for a Tour leader to intervene in a harmless breakaway, but Armstrong had to aggress Simeoni.

Just as he was on his bicycle, Armstrong, in the first months of retirement, is a ferocious legal competitor. Armstrong, who has vehemently denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs, is now vowing to pursue two cases even though they could very well open unpleasant testimony.

''That's the way I was raised,'' he said.

At the moment, Armstrong is combating the Aug. 23 article in L'?uipe, the French sports daily, that said six of his 1999 samples recently tested for EPO, a blood-boosting drug, appeared positive.

Armstrong is not about to lose any of his seven championships, nor should he. The retroactive tests were done only on the B urine samples that had been retained from 1999. A subsequent article in The New York Times revealed a collegial controversy among scientists about the current test for EPO. The release of this data, whether accurate or not, violates all standards of confidentiality and control that should govern drug testing.

The International Cycling Union, known as U.C.I., which has belatedly ratcheted up its testing process in recent years, appeared to shrug off the charges last week, lacking further proof.

''The question is not about me but about the process and the ethics,'' Armstrong said yesterday in a telephone interview.

There are, however, enough claims and rumors and old enemies and circumstantial evidence going around to do continued harm to Armstrong's image in his home country -- the cancer survivor who won the Tour seven times and has built a foundation to fight the disease that almost killed him. He is battling for his reputation as he often attacked a competitor on the slopes of France.

''You do 'Larry King Live,''' Armstrong said yesterday, citing one Internet poll that showed 87 percent of the people believed him -- ''stateside.'' Still, doubts have been raised.

A trial, scheduled for High Court in London on Nov. 6, involves his suit concerning excerpts from the book ''L.A. Confidentiel: Les Secrets de Lance Armstrong,'' published in The Sunday Times of London in 2004.

''I'm looking forward to it,'' Armstrong said. ''You sit there and tell your side of it.''

It is likely that some people critical of Armstrong in the book will be testifying. ''There will be cross-examination,'' Armstrong said. ''My lawyers tell me they do this all the time.''

Armstrong might be liable for court costs, which could amount to more than $1 million, if he dropped the Sunday Times suit. ''But Lance feels he was defamed by The Sunday Times,'' Bill Stapleton, Armstrong's agent, said yesterday.

The book contains voluminous allusions to drug use in cycling that resulted in the deaths of dozens of young riders, and various scandals and suspensions. So far it has been published only in French.

The other impending legal case involves Armstrong's suit to claim the $5 million bonus for winning his sixth consecutive Tour in 2004, as guaranteed by an insurance company, SCA Promotions, in Texas. SCA has cited the book and other doubts as a reason for not paying.

Armstrong concedes that L'?uipe's charges may be raised in some of his legal cases. The paper is owned by the same corporation that runs the Tour de France, which made millions of dollars from American tourism and corporate involvement during the Armstrong years. When Armstrong retired, the 1999 B samples somehow materialized at L'?uipe.

Stapleton and Armstrong have been highly critical of Richard W. Pound, the chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, for calling for further investigation of the 1999 tests. They say the B samples should never have been released and are unreliable, six years later, given the upgraded testing in recent years.

''EPO is a powerful drug,'' Armstrong said yesterday. ''Some say it makes you 10 percent faster. Let's say I took EPO in 1999 and didn't take it from 2000 to 2005. My performance never dropped off. Obviously, I'm not saying I did. But I only got faster.''

Armstrong said there were ''many factors'' for his being investigated in France, including the loss of dominance by French riders in the past two decades. He has generally been well received by French cycling fans by the side of the road, however, and claiming French anti-Americanism is not fair.

Many Europeans assume that cyclists rely on chemicals in one form or another. American sports fans are only now developing their cynical side after recent developments in baseball.

It appears that Armstrong has a large tiger by the tail, in what he had depicted as a placid retirement. Since his last ride up the Champs-?ys?, on July 24, Armstrong has proposed to his girlfriend, Sheryl Crow, spent time with his three children, and, through the Lance Armstrong Foundation, donated $500,000 to cancer victims uprooted by Hurricane Katrina.

In recent days, he has appeared at a testimonial to his blocking back, George Hincapie, in South Carolina on Saturday; rooted for his peer, Andre Agassi, at the United States Open in New York on Sunday; then jetted to Sun Valley, Idaho, to cycle with his pal Robin Williams.

Mostly, Lance Armstrong's retirement sounds much like his racing career. People pursue him. He pursues people.